Newsletter

Letter: China’s track record raises concerns over pipeline deal

As news of China’s Polar Silk Road comes to light, I’m wondering if Alaska didn’t make a deal with the devil by signing the Joint Development Agreement with China for the LNG pipeline.

China’s naked arctic ambitions must be understood in the context of its wider economic ambitions; the Polar Silk Road is the latest expansion of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative. Apparently, the modern Silk Road’s reach will include the Arctic.

Economic ambitions aside, “the Chinese military presence in the Arctic is likely to grow as the Arctic opens up, as Chinese naval capabilities grow and as Chinese interests in the Arctic region further strengthen,” SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) wrote in June. Don’t forget, China has been pursuing maritime expansion for over 30 years. They have illegally created islands, and fortified them, in the South China Sea.

The “joint development agreement” signed by the Walker Administration with China gives China 75 percent of the LNG coming out of the gas line that would run from the North Slope to Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula for export, “on a cost-based and stable price utilizing the benefits of strategic financing and investment.” The other 25 percent would go to Asia. (Suzanne Downing, Mustreadalaska.com)

Wait. Isn’t China in Asia?

What do we get out of this agreement? A few years’ worth of jobs? That’s it? Are we so desperate for money that we’d sell our soul to a potential enemy?

China’s track record with their desire for world dominance makes me uneasy.